Gender and Prediction of Gilligan's Justice and Care Orientations

Abstract

Data are reported from three samples of undergraduate subjects (total N=206), to assess Gilligan's (1982) view that men and women possess different orientations toward moral dilemmas, based on considerations of justice and care, respectively. Subjects in samples one and two wrote open-ended responses to five hypothetical moral dilemmas, in which characters varied ni gender and age, and themes (orientations) varied in being stereotypically male- or female-typed. In these samples, differential use of the justice and care orientations was not significantly associated with the factor of gender. For none of the eight dilemmas in sample three, using a 2 (age of character) X 2 (gender of character) X 2 (orientation of dilemma) factorial design, was gender related to differential use of the justice and care orientations. Some comments concerning evaluation of Gilligan's perspective on gender and moral orientation are presented.